Flat knitting machines mainly are designed to knit textile products to make knitting clothes. Their practicality greatly impacts people's life.
A conventional flat knitting machine mainly includes a chassis, a needle bar located on the chassis, a slide track above the needle bar and a yarn feeder slidably located on the slide track. An auxiliary yarn guide apparatus and a yarn delivery device are provides at each of two sides of the chassis. Yarns pass through, in this order, a yarn rack above the chassis, the auxiliary yarn guide apparatus and yarn delivery device, and are sent to the yarn feeder slid reciprocally on the track to be knitted on the needle bar.
The auxiliary yarn guide apparatus mainly aims to offset frictional forces of the yarns generated during winding through the yarn rack to smooth yarn delivery. The auxiliary yarn guide apparatus mainly includes a motor, a belt, a belt pulley, a spindle and a yarn guide wheel. When the motor is in operation it drives the yarn guide wheel mounted on a spindle to spin via the belt and belt pulley to aid yarn guide function.
However, when the auxiliary yarn guide apparatus is used for a prolonged period of time the belt tends to fatigue or wear off, and cannot effectively drive the yarn guide wheel spinning, and results in unstable yarn guiding. Moreover, the auxiliary yarn guide apparatus is complicated and consists of too many elements, assembly and installation are difficult and time-consuming, repairs and maintenance and replacement of the elements also are difficult, there is room for improvement.